The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
Arizona Firefighters Work 2-Hour Extrication on Truck Driver
LARRY TUNFORSS
Bullhead City Fire Department
Early Tuesday morning at 2:16 a.m., Bullhead City Fire Department responded to a reported Semi truck collision at mile post ten on Hwy 68.
Rescue 31 arrived to find a semi truck tractor and trailer which had collided with the rear of another semi truck tractor and trailer. Both were west bound on Hwy 68.
Impact was significant and intrusion into the driver’s compartment by heavy I-beams came within inches of the driver. Fire crews worked tirelessly for two hours and ten minutes to extricate the driver from his cab. Crews used every tool available from air bags, cribbing, jacks, jaws of life, and even a heavy duty commercial tow truck from Kingman to lift the I-beam load and unpin the trapped but conscious driver.
A CareFlight helicopter was called to the scene and its crew assisted fire medics in stabilizing the driver during the extrication. Once extricated, the driver was flown to a trauma center in Las Vegas where his condition was unknown at press time. Fortunately, the loads on the involved trailers were produce and heavy steel I-beams, and did not pose a hazardous threat.
DPS and ADOT shut down Hwy 68 during the incident for the safety of crews working to free the driver and then dislodge the two tractor trailers. Hwy 68 was then reopened.
Bullhead City Fire Department
Early Tuesday morning at 2:16 a.m., Bullhead City Fire Department responded to a reported Semi truck collision at mile post ten on Hwy 68.
Impact was significant and intrusion into the driver’s compartment by heavy I-beams came within inches of the driver. Fire crews worked tirelessly for two hours and ten minutes to extricate the driver from his cab. Crews used every tool available from air bags, cribbing, jacks, jaws of life, and even a heavy duty commercial tow truck from Kingman to lift the I-beam load and unpin the trapped but conscious driver.
A CareFlight helicopter was called to the scene and its crew assisted fire medics in stabilizing the driver during the extrication. Once extricated, the driver was flown to a trauma center in Las Vegas where his condition was unknown at press time. Fortunately, the loads on the involved trailers were produce and heavy steel I-beams, and did not pose a hazardous threat.
DPS and ADOT shut down Hwy 68 during the incident for the safety of crews working to free the driver and then dislodge the two tractor trailers. Hwy 68 was then reopened.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
-
Frederick,
I'm well aware of how long-nose over-the-road tractors are made. My point is that you can cut the fiberglass away with an air chisel or sawzall and see if the beam is impinged on anything substantial on the red tractor. If not, you can just a) relief cut the A post, B) make a horizontal relief cut in the top of the tractor's driver-side B post, C) use a hydraulic ram or high-lift jack to raise the roof clear, and D) maybe pull the lead truck up out of the way. If there is substantial wedging of the red tractor under the trailer, this might not work...but it's worth the 2 minutes it would take to expose the entire beam and see what - if anything is holding it.
I would not use a plasma cutter in this situation - the risk of fire from the plasma cutter is much greater than the risk of shorting out the trucks' wiring harness.
-
-
Frederick, you are missing my main point. We are not backing up either interstate commerce or local delivery trucks to loading docks...we need to avoid backing whenever we can and leave plenty of space around the rear of the rigs when we have to back.
Yet...every CDL test and the apparatus driver classes include an alley dock skill station. That skill has zero pertinence to what we do. Ditto for the pre-trip inspection that's such a big part of the CDL...that is for inspecting your truck before one or two drivers take it across the country without an additional inspection. It doesn't apply to multiple drivers checking the rig on sequential shifts, especially for departments that have certified emergency vehicle technicians doing the heavy maintenance and any inspection that looks under the hood or that jacks the cab.
Most fire departments do not operate tractor-trailer ladders, and the ones that do have tillers. Both of those are very big differences from what is required for a CDL Class A license.
There are also seperate CDL licenses for articulated and non-articulated vehicles. In the states that require CDLs instead of a seperate emergency-vehicle specific license, it doesn't matter if you're driving a monster truck at a strip mine or a midi pumper with 500 gallons of water, it's all the same license...26,000 lbs GVW or more with no articulation equals Class B.
As for the local vs. interstate driving issue, you're missing that point, too. "Local" drivers don't work 24-hour shifts, they usually work 8 or 10 hours and then they're done for the day. Firefighters in busy departments may be behind the wheel for substantially more than the 16 hours you can put in an interstate Class A logbook. If it's not safe for interstate commercial drivers with a CDL, why would it be safe for firefighters with the same CDL?
Thus, my point that we need an "EDL" or Emergency Driver's License that teaches skills that are specific to what WE do, not what commercial truck drivers do.
-
Permalink Reply by Adam L. Culp on
-
WAY TO GO GUYS,GREAT TEAM WORK !!!!!
-
-
Fredrick,
I agree that we came to help, not die, but we need to work on a variety of solutions when we run unusual calls. The combustibles on the tractor (fuels, lubricants, plastic, rubber, paint, etc) are going to be very vulnerable to ignition from the plasma cutter.
I"m a big fan of having a lot of tools in the toolbox. A well-equipped heavy rescue will have a plasma cutter, but will also have a lot of other tools suitable for working the occasional call like this one.
Even having a charged hoseline with foam isn't a guarantee that a plasma cutter won't start a fire in a place that the foam stream won't reach in a wreck this mangled up.
With a patient this heavily entrapped, we need to keep ignition sources away.
-
-
I'm not talking about pulling on the red tractor - cut away any impingement, and if you can't do that, then my question is moot. If you expose everything around the beam, it may not have any real structural impingement. That makes the potential for part of the red tractor to be wedged under the trailer carrying the beam the next big problem. You might be able to build a ramp and place it under the rear dualies of the flatbed and drive the trailer off and up to eliminate the wedge factor.
It might not be possible, but in a two-hour extrication, I'd call for more help and have the help looking at Plan B, Plan C, or if necessary, Plan X, Y, and Z.
-
-
Frederick, I completely agree with the driver safety requirements. In South Carolina, these are all taught in the fire academy Emergency Vehicle Driver's Course, which are prerequisites to all of the Pump Ops, Aerial Ops, and ARFF Ops classes. There are other sources for this type of training than a typical CDL prep course.
We need classes and driver rules that instill the safety mindset in our drivers, but that are specific to what WE do.
The emergency driver's license needs to include things like traffic pre-emption systems (Opticon), running lights and sirens, multiple units responding to an emergency, and related issues that are not included in CDL training or typical CDL preparations classes.
- ‹ Previous
- 1
- 2
- Next ›
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
